SMRT’s initiative in
making Mandarin broadcast for all our train stations doubly infuriates me as a
local-born Mandarin-speaker of a Chinese-ed family. Especially when station
names are announced exclusively in Mandarin and not any other ethnic languages
of Singaporeans, SMRT's intending target audience couldn't be more apparent.
And thus deplorable.
Having lamented on
the withering fate of Mandarin/Chinese in Singapore in the face of the growing
dominance of the English language, SMRT’s Mandarin broadcast of stations did
not come as a solace at all.
It is insulting,
honestly.
When our own ethnic Chinese citizens such as my parents who were educated in the Chinese medium needed Mandarin instructions most during their times, Mandarin broadcast on trains was not there for them. Likewise for all the other ethnic groups who were educated in their ethnic language medium.
When our own ethnic Chinese citizens such as my parents who were educated in the Chinese medium needed Mandarin instructions most during their times, Mandarin broadcast on trains was not there for them. Likewise for all the other ethnic groups who were educated in their ethnic language medium.
When the NE line was
completed, Chinatown station which is located in the heart of Chinatown
went into service. And naturally drew crowds of mono-lingual ethnic Chinese
elderly to the NE line. And Outram Park, being the interchange for transferring passengers
from other lines towards Chinatown station should
thus be equipped with Chinese instructions to enable these elderly for easy
navigation round the interchange. But no such convenience was provided for our citizens back then. And sad to
mention, multi-language train station name displays are also only a recent
happening despite the annual emphasis of our multi-racial characteristics on
each National Day.
Ironically, Mandarin
broadcast are now on board purely for the convenience of the new mainland Chinese
immigrants pouring into our island who have very limited English language
knowledge while the needs of our own citizens can be rightfully ignored and English
language rightfully forced down our throats.
Taipei Metro’s Heartware
By comparison, Taipei metro was already
equipped with four languages broadcast
as early as the 2000s on board for train stations and instructions, in
Mandarin, Taiwanese Hokkien, Hakka and English. Such consideration of the needs
of local and overseas passengers indicates the human touch of the public
transport provider. At least, it caters to the needs of the majority of their
people even though languages of their aborigines are not included.
It took Taipei city ten solid
years of construction before their first line of metro went into operation in 1996, covering a mere distance
of 10.5km. Our MRT went into operation a decade earlier and was no doubt a more
efficient construction. Nevertheless, when it comes to passenger-oriented
service, Taipei Metro is a few light years ahead of SMRT. And Taipei Metro’s dedication
towards passengers does not just stop with multi-language announcement only but
I shall not dwell into it at this point.
We see ourselves
as a multi-racial country and yet whitewashed ourselves with English language,
as shown on our main public transport. Taiwan appears to be a more uniformed
ethnic place than ours, yet recognizes the diversity within their own ethnic
group on their metro.
The English language mania and the $
The English
language was ruthlessly installed as our lingua franca at all fronts in Singapore,
at the expense of marginalizing our local ethnic languages (I wouldn't use the
term "mother tongue" over here as it specifically refers only to the
official languages of Malay, Chinese and Tamil, ignoring the presence of
dialects). People who are proficient in non-English language were made to play
a second fiddle to the English language and the people who master it. And
during my times, it was even used as a determining subject for academic
progression.
I wonder if other
races felt the same bitterness?
Things started
changing around 2006, I returned home for a visit and was stunned to spot Chinese
signs at Suntec City. The discovery contrasted the
incident that took place during my JC time when my English-ed ethnic Chinese
principal disapproved the use of Chinese characters on our Chinese New Year banner within school compounds.
And now the sea change
of attitude towards the Chinese language after successful strangle of its growth
through political and economic isolation for the past decades. Underscoring the
changed mindset is undoubtedly the economic and political profits gained from the
millions of mainland Chinese immigrants shored upon our land. Branded as
“talents” but ill-equipped with our lingua franca. Contrarily, English language
help provisions are available to these “talents” whereas our own people were
penalized for the lack of it. Blatant inconsistent criteria for the locals and
the foreigners is a clear indication of a $$$-driven mentality which explains many
unexplained hardware malfunctions of our MRT trains.
Unfortunately, SMRT is not merely a private public transport company but in many ways an epitome of the way which our country is run. $$$-driven mentality and therefore the constant play down of its people/passengers and the severe lack of national pride.
Such revelation. It doesn’t take a
genius to see where Singapore
is heading to for the next stop.
Next station, $$$. Mind the platform gap. If you were to fall into
the gap, it is solely your own responsibility.
